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*Effective Health Science Searching: Stop 8: Re Run the Search

Effective Health Science Searching

Rerun the Search

Introduction

After adapting your search terms and strategies, it's important to re-run your search to see how the changes impact your results. 

This process is often iterative; you may need to adapt and re-run your search multiple times to refine your results.  Each time you adjust your keywords, Boolean operators, or search filters, take note of how these changes affect the relevance and quality of the sources you find. A research log is a very helpful tool to keep track of the changes you have made to your search. 

By continually refining your approach, you can better target the most pertinent and credible information for your research.  Remember, effective research often involves multiple cycles of searching, reviewing, and adapting to ensure you gather the best possible sources.

The image is a flowchart outlining the search process. Here’s a detailed description of the flowchart: It starts with searching. After running the search, you stop and evaluate the search results. Then you ask yourself. Are the Results Relevant? If Yes, the search process is Done. If No, the process moves to the next step. If the results are not relevant, you adapt or modify the search criteria. The process loops back to assessing the relevance of the results. If the results are relevant after rerunning, the process is Done. If the results are still not appropriate, you continue to adapt and rerun the search until relevant results are achieved.

Next step

You may need to adapt your search more than once. If your search results still aren't what you are looking for take another look at the information under the stop about adapting your search. It might also be helpful to keep a research log. 

Return to Stop 7: Adapting Your Search
Look at Research Log
Move to the End of Tutorial

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